Hey Hive! It's been a bit.
About 10 days ago, I went back in to the small wooded common area behind my fence. My son and a friend of his had been playing baseball in the back yard. I warned them about hitting the ball too hard, but of course, they are kids, so they did not really listen.
My son's friend knocked the ball over the back fence and in to the common area. At least he didn't hit it at a window. The kids went back and did a quick search for the ball, but couldn't find it and gave up. Over dinner, my son was distraught. It was his favorite ball that got hit over the fence, one he had owned since he was like 4. So after dinner, I went out in to the wooded area and started searching.
I spent probably 30 minutes out in the wooded area, searching high and low for the prized baseball. Of course the area is overgrown with weeds and all sorts of undergrowth. I could have been standing right over top of the ball and never seen it.
I did end up coming out of the woods with something though. I wouldn't realize it for nearly 24 hours, but during my time in the woods, I made myself available to become a buffet for a swarm of chiggers.
Suddenly, I had probably 300 small red welts all over my legs. Primarily on my right thigh, where I gave up counting when I got to 100 bites on the front of my leg, with at least as many on on the back of my leg. My left leg was not left out. It probably got about 25% of the action, while a few of the little buggers decided to go off on their own and attach themselves to my arms and shoulders.
I spent the better part of the next day finding every article of clothing I had worn, sheet I had laid on, or possibly even just brushed against and running them through the sanitize cycle on my washing machine to ensure these guys weren't still hanging out waiting for a new opportunity to feed.
It was the itchiest I could ever remember being. And I am old enough to not have gotten away with a vaccine for Chicken Pox, I had to go through having that fun week of itchiness that was a right of passage for most of us in our 40s now.
A healthy dose of Benadryl and Cortisone cream gave momentary relief, but those first two nights I barely slept for the itch. After a couple of days of researching I found what would finally allow me to sleep.
The Aveeno Oatmeal Bath, mixed in with water too hot for me to stand was the relief I needed to be able to get to sleep. Man did the heat hurt when I threw myself down in to the bath water. But heat is shown to "hotwire" the itch receptors in the nerves, giving a couple of hours of relief. That would give me the time to get to sleep.
I'm one of those unlucky folks who have an allergic reaction to the chigger bite and my welts that looked like mosquito bites turned in to huge angry blisters. I was seeping from dozens of blisters that burst on both legs. I honestly considered going out and buying enough gauze rolls to wrap my leg from hip to ankle. But after a few days the blisters dried out.
It's been ten days now since that walk in the woods. I am still itchy. It still takes a couple of benadryl to make the itch back off enough to go to sleep. But the itch is not as bad as it was initially. The blisters have all crusted over and are now scabs instead of weeping wounds. So the worst is behind me.
One thing is for sure. I won't be going out in to our common area again without a heavy dose of bug spray!